March 1, 1915
Diseased teeth and gums have an undoubted and pernicious effect upon the general health of the individual. This condition as a cause of disease has been the subject of many papers written by physicians and dentists.
Now a new remedy has been proposed by Bass and Johns which promises relief in the majority of cases. Emetin is the drug that destroys the ameba of pyorrhea just as ipecac destroys the ameba of dysentery. The lesion should be attacked persistently until healed and the use of emetin continued to prevent reinfection.
Emetin may be used hypodermically in one-half grain doses for at least three days and as often as is necessary to destroy the ameba.
The presence of the ameba can be determined only by proper microscopic examinations. The healing process may require considerable time, according to the extent and character of the necrosis. Deep pockets require careful cleansing to clear the pus-forming cavities. After this has been accomplished and pus ceases to form Bass and Johns recommend the use of fluid extract of ipecac as a local application to prevent reinfection. Ipecac will actually destroy the ameba if used persistently and is preferable to the many commercial preparations now in use. The teeth should be brushed in the ordinary way, after which one drop of fluid extract of ipecac should be applied to the wet brush, forcing some of the solution between the teeth and spitting out the excess without further washing of the mouth.
The investigators have found that this simple procedure will keep the mouth free from pyorrhea. It stands to reason, however, that the teeth must be thoroughly cleaned in the usual manner by the dentist, otherwise it will be impossible for the emetin or ipecac to penetrate the deep crusts which are found about old and uncared for mouths. It is remarkable how many people neglect the care of their teeth and it is equally strange that so little constitutional disorder is found in those who neglect an ordinary and simple sanitary toilet requisite. One of the first rules for hospital patients when they come under the supervision of the nurse is the provision of a tooth brush and a suitable mouth wash.
Many patients from the country, a lesser number from the cities, never employ a tooth brush. Some even resent a suggestion of clean teeth. Nature gave them teeth and nature is supposed to keep them in order, but unclean teeth are the rule rather than the exception in hospital practice.
Not infrequently animals need the services of a dentist, but their numbers are few compared to man. When a simple remedy for pyorrhea, like ipecac, promises to clear the teeth of amebas, there is no excuse for neglecting nature’s adornment.
A bill has been introduced in the Minnesota State Legislature for the purpose of lowering the butterfat requirement in milk from three and one-quarter to three per cent. This means a reduction of solids in milk from thirteen to eleven per cent, and it further means that more water will be added to much of the milk sold in Minnesota. A Minneapolis ordinance prescribes the butterfat content to be as high as three and one-half per cent. Minneapolis has enough water in its milk now, and, if this bill goes through, the city may expect to use skim-milk almost exclusively.
It hardly seems credible that any one should desire the quality of milk to be reduced for any purpose whatever unless it is for commercial reasons.
Fortunately, at this writing the bill is held upfor consideration, and it is to be hoped that sufficient pressure will be brought to bear to insure its defeat. Too many cows give poor milk and any effort to standardize and legalize the inferior cow is a reflection on the integrity of milk sellers. Inferentially, there are too many under-fed children and yet if milk is reduced in quality, we must expect less vigor in the growing child.
One wonders why such a bill should get into the Legislature; what are the real reasons for its passage?
The late issue of “Leaves of Healing,” published by the Dowieites at Zion City, near Chicago, has been sent broadcast among physicians. This sheet is an antivaccination propaganda, and is profusely illustrated by horrible pictures of supposed diseased states caused by vaccination. The text is, as is all others of its ilk, full of misinformation, garbled extracts from known and unknown writers and speakers, and tirades against all who believe in vaccination.
If these sheets would present a fair and broad view of the evils of vaccination they might find more adherents to antivaccination doctrines among medical men; but, as it contains so many misstatements and is so overbearingly one-sided in its efforts, the effect is nil, except when it is circulated among those unbalanced in mind and judgment. Physicians in general freely acknowledge that vaccination, or the introduction of a serum, may produce, in some people, unexpected and sometimes disastrous results. Most physicians hesitate to vaccinate people with active syphilis, or even those in whom the syphilis has been seemingly inactive for years, or those who have hereditary syphilis. These persons are quite apt to have an accentuation of their old blood disorder under slight infections or injuries; but that should not militate against vaccination when an epidemic is probable. Some of the pictures in “Leaves of Healing” were undoubtedly pictures of syphilis, and should have been so labeled; but that could not have been expected in a partisan publication.
Physicians also know that people who have chronic eczema should not be vaccinated until the eczema clears up; and doubtless in hurried or extensive vaccinations that are deemed necessary to prevent the spread of smallpox in a community cases of eczema are overlooked. Children who are the victims of chronic digestive disorders, or who react to mild febrile or diarrheal conditions more than the average child, are commonly exempted from vaccination. On the whole, there are but few conditions that are made worse by careful vaccinations with proper dressings and after-care.
When one considers what wonders in the way of control of smallpox have been recorded in medical history, the few mishaps that occur among the vaccinated, the proportion of illness due to vaccination is so infinitesimal that they cannot be classed among the “fearful” results of vaccination.
“Leaves of Healing” leaves out of its vaporings the fact that Zion City had a smallpox epidemic not long ago, and was quarantined by the health authorities, and that the people submitted to vaccination with gratifying results. Nor does the above-mentioned magazine record the fact that the president and secretary of a local branch of antivaccinationists in Minneapolis, who were fighting a compulsory vaccination law before the Minnesota Legislature a few years ago, died of virulent smallpox during that meeting of the Legislature.
The antivaccinationist usually has at his command a set form of speech that contains more vituperant adjectives, and less reason and judgment, than the average self-constituted reformer. Smallpox and other preventable diseases will continue to exist while the uneducated and ill-balanced minds are permitted their volley of wind-laden speech. Some day the people will wake up, cast the “reformer” aside, and climb on to the band-wagon of health and happiness.
It will take our educators and sanitarians some time to harness the team to the wagon, but when it starts it will go on merrily to its destination.
In answer to a number of inquiries the following statement is made:
The stock of theJournal-Lancetis held by a number of Twin City physicians, and the publisher, Mr. W. L. Klein.
TheJournal-Lancetis the official organ of the State Medical Associations of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The responsibility for its reading matter and editorials rests with the publication committees of the state associations.